Development of the Bison, Iguana and Gajah Puteri gas fields in Block A of the Natuna Sea near the Anambas Islands in Riau Islands province commenced on Tuesday (10/10. (Photo courtesy of Premier Oil's official website)

Jakarta. Development of the Bison, Iguana and Gajah Puteri gas fields in Block A of the Natuna Sea near the Anambas Islands in Riau Islands province commenced on Tuesday (10/10), upstream oil and gas regulator SKK Migas said in a statement on Thursday.

Premier Oil, a United Kingdom-based oil and gas company, signed an engineering procurement, construction and installation agreement with Timas Suplindo – the operator of oil fields in Natuna's Block A – on Tuesday to kick-start the development. Gas production is expected to begin as early as the third quarter of 2019.

"This is an important progress of this project. It showed that the upstream industry of oil and gas in the country is still active, despite the fact that global oil prices have not yet recovered," SKK Migas spokesman Wisnu Prabawa Taher said in the statement.

The three gas fields are expected to produce up to 60 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) of gas and 1,100 barrels of oil-equivalent natural condensate per day.

The gas field development will add approximately 80 billion cubic feet to the country's gross deliverable gas reserves.

Premier Oil has been operating in Block A of the Natuna Sea since 1996. The company supplies gas to both Indonesia and nearby Singapore from sources within the Natuna Sea's sprawling underwater oilfields.